Was it worth it?

[Scepticalscribe]

My point is that men are unduly excluded from the shaming process...

Not simply unduly excluded (and, thank you for saying this), but, I would argue, almost completely excluded.

My mother used to make sarcastic remarks about the numbers of virgin births such societies seem to have, and would always add sagely, "you know, it takes two to tango."

 

[lizkat]

Here, let me help you...

Life in pretzel land. The veils have slipped some in the Trump era, but there are still people caught in living assorted and convoluted Big Lies.

Clarence Thomas professionally appears to keep focus on what passes for the Republican Party's idea of conservative "principles" in modern American history, and so to uphold his oath of office must pretend that race plays no real part in how things work in America, despite the fact that the document he spends his professional life on makes it clear that people of color were originally --officially and constitutionally-- not accorded equal standing with whites, at least for the purpose of ascertaining or distributing political power.

And then there is his white wife who openly through political action committees supports people with distinctly white supremacist agendas. Are we to imagine that she too pretends race has nothing to do with the endeavors she helps fund?

 

[JayMysteri0]

Life in pretzel land. The veils have slipped some in the Trump era, but there are still people caught in living assorted and convoluted Big Lies.

Clarence Thomas professionally appears to keep focus on what passes for the Republican Party's idea of conservative "principles" in modern American history, and so to uphold his oath of office must pretend that race plays no real part in how things work in America, despite the fact that the document he spends his professional life on makes it clear that people of color were originally --officially and constitutionally-- not accorded equal standing with whites, at least for the purpose of ascertaining or distributing political power.

And then there is his white wife who openly through political action committees supports people with distinctly white supremacist agendas. Are we to imagine that she too pretends race has nothing to do with the endeavors she helps fund?

A phrase I am almost positive that a younger Clarence Thomas heard from people like his wife, which would explain things...

"Well, you're not like THEM."

 

[lizkat]

A phrase I am almost positive that a younger Clarence Thomas heard from people like his wife, which would explain things...

"Well, you're not like THEM."

Well exactly, and unfortunately we're still living through a time where it once was common and is still not unheard of for even whites who worked in the civil rights movement to have described Black individuals who had gained some visibility --entrepreneurs, military leaders, educators, scientists, rising political stars-- as "articulate" or "bright" etc.

In short, yeah THEY were not like THEM.

In fact there was a brouhaha once over our incoming Prez having described a then competitor for the Democrats' presidential nomination using such terms. Of course the right is still fond of using that moment in history. Nonetheless it did occur. Some schooling was viewed as imperative, and was promptly supplied. I'll cite here a column I remember that probably helped...

Biden articulates code word for condescension

If you are an African-American who is, dare I say it, well-spoken, you have a good idea what a white person means when he or she calls you “articulate.” It’s a code word and the i…

www.chicagotribune.com

In truth Biden may owe his election to members of the Black church who could put that behind them and (again) work to elect a white not-Trump. This despite lingering awareness that even the white people "on their side" these days are steeped in an ongoing American history of prejudice and condescension more than occasionally tempered by opportunism.

To steal from Feinstein's remark about Barrett and put it to more constructive use, in the Black church of the old south, the principles of redemption and resistance "live loudly"... and they are not distracted by ancient slurs and insults nor by unconscious condescension either. But I'd say Biden and his team need to step up and demonstrate awareness of expressed gratitude for the lifting power they got in the 2020 elections.